


Barefoot Walk Across the Lawn

by FandomArtist



Series: I Know You’re Strong Enough [1]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst, Character death in so much as, First successful escape, Gen, Hurt Zagreus, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Zagreus/Thanatos, Mother-Son Relationship, POV Second Person, POV Zagreus, Stream of Consciousness, he just wants to see his MOM, slight whump, we all know how these meetings go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28736940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomArtist/pseuds/FandomArtist
Summary: For you’ve fought your father countless times before, but this time, this time you did it. With heavy breath, you watch as the Styx claim him, the smell of blood bursting through the area and dissipating as soon as it arrived. A sense of achievement floods through you, as you realize with growing excitement in your heart that you get to seeher.The running, the fighting. It can stop.
Relationships: Persephone & Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Series: I Know You’re Strong Enough [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106870
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	Barefoot Walk Across the Lawn

**Author's Note:**

> The first escape really hecked me up, and I'm still super emotional about it. This was the result. I just really love this boy and want him to be able to chill with his mom. This story is a TRAGEDY and lives in my mind rent free.  
>   
> Title comes from the Amazing Devil song Welly Boots; if you haven't listened to it you really should, it's such a good Zag and Persephone song and I want to cry.

The first thing you feel is elation.

For you’ve fought your father countless times before, but this time, this time you _did_ it. With heavy breath, you watch as the Styx claim him, the smell of blood bursting through the area and dissipating as soon as it arrived. A sense of achievement floods through you, as you realize with growing excitement in your heart that you get to see _her_.

The running, the fighting. It can stop.

It doesn’t feel real. And yet, everything around you is a flood of new sensation. No longer distracted by the impending fight with the Lord of the Underworld, you let yourself simply feel.

You notice how cold it is. While you’re not accustomed of the cold, it’s not as if you’ve never felt it before (as you think of the cool feeling of Death, his lips grazing down you neck, creating a numbing sensation that sets your soul on fire, his icy fingers trailing across flushed skin as he travels down down dow-). But this, you decide, feels different. It’s fresh, you initially think, as you stare around you at the destroyed battlefield, the steadily falling snow slowly filling the divots left by the scorch marks of previous battle.

But it also stings.

You decide that this is a good feeling, makes you feel more alive than you’ve felt in a while. Looking around and realizing you have no idea where to start, you arbitrarily pick a direction and march on, intent on your quest now that the end is in sight.

Hearing tales from Achilles, you thought the surface would be greener. While very little grows in the underworld, it seems like nothing grows above it besides some twisted gnarled tree trunks and the occasional snow-covered shrub. This doesn’t stop your sheer awe at the newness of your surroundings. There is simply so much that you’ve never seen before

A cooing from a nearby tree alerts you to a feathered creature with wide eyes, staring intently and starting a laugh out of you, for it looks like the small pendant Athena gifted you. A small furred creature darts across your path, and while you don’t know exactly what it is it looks much kinder then the poisonous rodents you fight in the satyrs realm. A look to your left shows a wide expanse of blue, reaching as far as the eye can see. _Water_ , your mind supplies, yet so different than the Lethe is all its ranging and turbulence. The expanse is quiet, peaceful, still, and so incredibly endless.

Light starts to appear on the horizon and you honestly want to cry.

The brightness glints off the surface of the endless sea, creating a gorgeous shimmering amongst the wash of color the world is receiving. The swirling brown tones on the pines trees becomes illuminated, playing with the glittering snow coating the trees. The snow acts as a reflective surface across the frost covered ground, making the land awash in pink red orange until the world settles into warm-tones, soft light. Never in your many years have you seen anything truly as breathtaking as the sunrise.

(You thought the sun might bring the same warmth to your skin that it projects on the land)

(and a small part in the back of your mind curses your father once more for keeping you from the surface, for the sun is another part of your family you were forbidden from)

The cool air draws a soft cough out of you, prompting you to move on. Your eyes quickly latch onto a stretch of uncovered, fresh grass ahead, pushing the thought of that helpless exhale from your lungs to the back of your mind (but isn’t it odd, that you’ve never felt that before? It must be the exertion from fighting your father, for while you won it was not an easy battle and anyone would need a short rest to recover from something like that-)

The small grass patch turns into a sort of path, winding you through the trees in a direction that feel _right_. While your feet had left a steady set of imprints in the snow, you notice that the grass doesn’t burn beneath your feet the way it does in Elysium. Glancing down, the usually steady pulse of the fire pumping through you seems slightly dimmed, though that could easily be a trick of the light. It’s so dark in the Underworld, it’s no wonder fire would look brighter down there.

There’s so much to see that you can’t dwell on this for long. The small path opens into a wide expanse of a lush grassy lawn: plants strewn about the yard in abundance, gardening equipment lying around, a homey looking table set with two chairs, and a welcoming little cottage painted in the soft yellow of the sunrise.

And of course, Persephone.

Your heart is filled with so much love and joy that it becomes hard to catch your breath, so overcome with finally, _finally_ making your way to her. The initial ~~rejections~~ hesitation hurts a bit, stings like the icy air that fills your lungs (and suddenly, the cold is no longer a welcome feeling-) but she quickly warms up and suddenly you’re engulfed in a strong, warm hug. And you could stay in those arms for hours you think, but then she pulls away and the chill returns, and she tells you that you _died_ which makes no sense since you’re a god but she’s already pulling you over to her set of chairs and she has you sit down and you take a moment to get a good look at her.

The first thing that stands out is how she looks so full of life. Skin a healthy tan from lounging in the sunlight, hair the color of the wheat she’s growing in her neighboring little field. A sprig of flowers haplessly pushed behind one ear. A hint of laugh lines around her eyes. While many have said you look just like your father, you can start to see some similarities between you and your mother: the unruly hair which always wants to stick up in the front, the easy-going quick to her lips as she looks back at you. The green of her eyes the same color that stares back at you each day in the mirror.

While you’ve always considered yourself someone who’s at ease with showing your emotions, you have to bite back the sob that wants to rip itself out of your chest.

You’re glad to be sitting; with the speed you try to tell Persephone everything you quickly start to lose your breath. While you avoid talking about Father, you try to mention everything else you can think of: Achilles training you so you could one day get here, the countless attempts you’ve made through the underworld to get here, the Gods granting you boons to aid in your quest to the surface realm. You tell her of Cerberus (and try not to pant the same way he does, the air must just be thinner on the surface you suppose-) and see her eyes light up, and though a part of you thought you might never get here, here she is, looking delighted, sitting right there in front of you, and you smile but suddenly its hard to breath and her smile starts drifting downward in concern-

You’re only partially paying attention to what she’s saying now. You’re trying, you swear, but the world is tilting slightly, and all you can here is, “You cannot stay here” and didn’t your mom want you? You came all this way and oh, her hand tilts your chin up so your looking at her and when did your gaze start wandering? Her hand is like a fire brand, and it burns but you’re so cold you welcome the warmth while you look dazedly up at her. You feel a trickle of wet dripping down your face and belatedly realize that you’ve let some tears escape.

She speaks of the fates. Of being bound to the depths of that wretched place you unfortunately call home. And oh, how the fates must laugh. A child born to both the underworld and surface world, drawn to one while destined to live in the other. You’ve always been a fighter, rolling with the punches, but just once you let yourself curse the fates for how unfair the situation is.

A cough rips through you, causing you to hunch over on yourself. Bringing your hand away from your mouth you see little specks of red, and no that can’t be right. Absently you think _I feel awful_ , but then you must have said it out loud since your mother starts carding her fingers through your hair, softly plying you with reassurances. Everything feels slower, like you’re slogging your way through molasses. You absently hope that maybe father will stop fighting you now that you’ve beat him, so you can easily return back to your mother’s small cottage. An unlikely wish, but a hope nonetheless. You feel her arms around you once more, and while her embrace is comforting ~~and you never want her to let go~~ you know your time is coming. You can hear the rush of the Styx in your ears, coming to claim you, as you promise Persephone that you’ll do everything to come back to her. You feel a gentle press of lips to your forehead and a soft goodbye. The whispered _When you are able, please. Come back._ A promise that she will be waiting here, regardless of how long it takes you to return.

As the Styx come and sweep your body away, you make a promise to yourself that you will never stop trying. Nothing, fates be damned, will keep you from seeing your mother. So as soon as you wash up in that pool, you’ll get up. Grab a weapon. Try again. No matter many times you must battle through the darkness of Tartarus. No matter how many times you burn in Elysium. No matter how many times the Gods’ turn their boons against you while Thesus sends a spear through your heart. You’ll make it back to her.

_However long it takes._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> If you liked this, please give part 2 a read, written by my incredibly talented friend Vigilantellie. It honestly made me want to cry reading it, it's super good!  
> This is my first fic ever, I'm so excited! Any comments and kudos would be greatly appreciated! :)


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